S. Korea to draw plans for nuclear repository this year

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, March 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will seek to draw up a masterplan within
the year to build a permanent repository for spent radioactive fuel materials
produced by the country's nuclear reactors, the head of a state-run corporation
said Monday.

Min Kye-hong, head of the Korea Radioactive Management Corp. (KRMC), told
reporters that a panel, made up of nuclear experts and civic groups, will start
work next month to explore how best to tackle the potentially volatile issue of
constructing a holding facilities for used radioactive material.
"As of late last month, the country's four nuclear power plants operating the 20
commercial reactors, held 10,083 tons of spent fuel materials with 690 tons being
produced every year," the CEO said.
He said that at current rate, temporary holding facilities located inside the
nuclear power stations will reach maximum capacity by 2016 making it imperative
that a more permanent arrangement is made.
"It takes six years to build a repository that can safety hold dangerous
high-grade nuclear waste," Min said. He said a blueprint on the selection
process, and benefits that can be given to the region that agrees to host the
repository will have to reached by year's end. Selection and purchasing of land
should begin in 2010.
Min said options include building specialized repositories next to temporary
holding areas at the nuclear power plants, or building a new facility altogether.
The executive also said that the new facility will help win time so the country
can decide how to deal with its spent nuclear fuel.
"At present South Korea cannot reprocess its spent fuel rods to generate more
energy, but there is always a possibility that this may change," he said.
Seoul announced in 1992 that it will seek denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula and said it will not take steps to enrich uranium and reprocess spent
nuclear fuel. It is obliged under the 1974 deal signed with the United States to
limit reprocessing of its spent nuclear fuel that could be used to make weapons
of mass destruction. The deal with Washington expires in 2014.
KRMC, meanwhile, said that the first shipment of 1,000 drums of low and
intermediate level radioactive materials are to be shipped to the Gyeongju
nuclear waste site in July.
Work on the Gyeongju facility began in August, 2008, with 42 percent of the work
being completed. The city won the right to host the facility through a local
referendum in late 2005. The central government has given 300 billion won (US$215
million) to the city located 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul as compensation.
Low and intermediate level waste refers to protective gloves worn at nuclear
power plants, radioactive filters and various X-ray byproducts used in hospitals.

The movement of the drums will allow the corporation under the Ministry of
Knowledge Economy to check operating procedures needed for safe shipments in the
future. The facility will be completed in June 2010.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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